Late Evening S&P Futures Update (SPY)

 Well what do you know more bullshit this evening. S&P futures are up 8.75 handles on nothing but mouse farts and currency wars. Typical horse shit ahead of arguably the biggest week in trading since November of 2009 when Hussein was elected.

Beyond the standard futures ramping tonight we had a speculative Bank of Japan intervention in the USD/JPY pair as ZeroHedge so eloquently put it, "is the worst money spent by a central bank in the history of Keynesianism, with a half life of less than 30 minutes"

How are all you forex traders doing now with your stop limits and trend following robots? probably not so

Potash Talked With At least 15 Firms (POT)

A report from the Globe Mail say's Potash (NYSE: POT) has been in talks with as many as 15 bidding firms regarding their hostile 38Bil$ takeover bid from BHP (NYSE: BHP). Potash shares are higher by 3% today to 145.95 on above average volume of nearly 9 million shares. Potash believes their enterprise is worth more than  BHPs offer, which is working on a counter offer.

This merger has moved Potash (NYSE: POT) stock substantially higher the

Dallas' Newy is the City's Newest Star

\

Alcoa Scenario Recognition 13 Break out (AA)

Quick post on Alcoa's daily 1 minute chart. As i have covered in the past scenario recognition can be very profitable learned skill. The more chart patterns and their subsequent out comes given the tape environment the quicker you as a trader are able to identify and profit from the price action.

The chart to the left is of Alcoa which had M&A rumors this morning sending its shares surging higher the first hour of trading before tailing back a bit and catching off 12.87. The bid off 12.87 was my signal the buyer is still there and has size to take down. I decided to hold onto

IED Found on UPS Flight From Yemen To Chicago (UPS)

Apparently an ink cartridge converted into a IED was found onboard a UPS cargo flight from Yemen to Chicago this morning. Two other planes have been diverted one in Philidelpha and Newark NJ for further inspection.

The flight from Yemen was diverted to London where the package was inspected and removed. UPS trucks have been stopped a precation in Queens NYC. UPS official are cooperating fully with the investigation
More details as they come.

So how did these get on the plane in the first place? always scary when you hear the bomb is on the plane and not found prior...

UPDATE:

"Officials are concerned passenger flights presently in the air have bombs on them now; Multiple Flights with multiple bombs apparently." Wonderful because i have a flight this afternoon... perfect timing... 

Alcoa Calls Active On Takeover Speculation (AA)

Shares of Alcoa (NYSE: AA) are surging this morning on renewed M&A chatter up nearly 3% to the 13 level. Volume is heavy in AA for this time of the day with nearly 7 mllion shares exchanging hands within the first hour of trading.

Alcoa has been subject to takeover rumors for sometime with anything materializing. Each time chatter hits, the stock does perform nicely trading in an upward orderly fashion.

Options traders focused primaily on the November 13 calls and January 14 calls. Call option volume of 20K contracts (1100 puts) have sent implied vol in November up to 34.

(NYSE: AA)
Day's Range: 12.62 - 12.93
52wk Range: 9.81 - 17.60

Late Night S&P Futures Update (SPX)

WE have red! The S&Ps are down .5% down 5 handles currently....The bulls and bears battled it out during the regular session with the bulls, cough pomo, managed to close the market flat on the day despite an over 1.15% swing trough to trough. The dollar index was decimated the entire day all the way down to the 77.40 level before catching somewhat of a bid.

Clearly the carry trade is still wiggling, and bets are being placed ahead of the holiday season and the end of the year.

As for the regular session 1187.5 was the pre market high with the market opening in the 1185-1186 area before plunging nearly 10 handles to the 1176 level,

The Kellogg's Crispix Indicator Of Inflation (UUP)

My favorite cereal is Kellogg's Crispix. The cereal is very simple not to sugary not to bland. Lately my box's of Crispix seem to be getting smaller while the price is ever increasing? I thought i was a bit crazy and obsessive though i realized i am not, the price of Crispix seems to be going up nearly 50c every 6 months. Perhaps this is the grocery store marking up products... Doubt it. What really happening is the most basic form of inflation, via the price of commodities including but not limited to grains/corn/oil rising.

A normal size box of cereal advertised as a "low price" (above picture) is priced at $4.50 a box, some cereals were over $5.00 a box. Seriously, $5 dollars a box?

Options Whisper Alerted To Buy Microsoft Calls Oct 21st (MSFT)

UPDATE:
Microsoft is trading 27.18 currently, this makes nearly 2 + point gain since October 21st.


Options Whisper subscribers were alerted to buy the 26 calls in MSFT (NASDAQ: MSFT) on October 21st on the thesis Microsoft will follow other techs in beating EPS and reaffirming guidance. 


Subsequently Microsoft shares are surging after hours following their Q1 EPS. The EPS came in 7 cents above estimates of 55c or .62. Microsft is trading up after hours to the 26.66 level spiking over the 27 level briefly, MSFT closed 26.28.


If you are interested in option trade ideas check out Options Whisper. 


"Never say what you can whisper, never whisper when you can wink."

Vale Calls and XLF RMBrenna Video (XLF)

Via @CoffeyGrinds

Halliburton Puts Active On Macondo Cement Job (HAL)

Shares of oil services company Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) are trading sharply lower this after noon on new speculation they were aware of a poor cement job on the Macondo well. Shares are currently down 10% or 3.54 to 30.87. The Macondo well as you remember spewed oil for months in the Gulf of Mexico.

Halliburton shares (NYSE: HAL) traded as low as 28.84 before bouncing to the 32 level on millions of shares. Average volume in HAL is 11 million shares, it has traded 66 million shares already today.

Options traders focused primarily on the OTM 30 puts with nearly 18k trading Vs. open interest of 20k. These puts are up nearly 775% or 1.01 printing as high as 2.46.

The 31 and 34 puts were active as well with 7k in the 34 put strike and 13k trading in the 31 strike.

VIX Sonar Report From The Pit: Nov 25 puts (VIX)

Via @coffeygrinds

My New Heat Map (CNBC)

Check this out guys all GREEN!!!!!!!!

POMO DANCE TIME.. You Can't Touch This (FAZ)

WHY ARE WE UP.. 21k claimed reduced? who the fuck cares, we got 10million+ US "American dreamers" without jobs milling about wondering why wall street is partying? TODAY we have a POMO, get ready for the NFLX GOOG AAPL and GS ramping....

Late Night S&P Futures Update (SPX)

5 min ES_F

Fairly quiet overnight so far with the futures breaching the 1180 level to the upside about an hour ago. The late day SPOOZ ramp from 1167.75  to 1180.5 via currency wars AUD/JPY seems to be having a continued affect on the overnight session as the market is higher by about two handles.

The dollar has been giving back a bit of its gains achieved intra day today catching support after hours at the 78.05 level. Intra day session highs were 78.51, gold futures is trading in line with the dollar up slightly 4.6 points to 1327 even. For tomorrow watch

Obama on Comedy Central Tonight

Reminder the President of the United States is set to appear on "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart Tonight at 11pm on Comedy Central.

Should be rather interesting if you ask me... 

APPLE Reduces Future Margin Forecast (AAPL)

Update:
AAPL trading down 2% or so after hours trading as low at 304.

Apple computers just announced they are decreasing their gross margin for future periods. "They expect gross margins to decreased compared to levels achieved during 2010 and anticipate gross margin levels around 36% in quarter 1." They are citing higher costs of doing business in the innovation space and the higher cost of brining these products to market.

Sounds like more excuses to keep their stock price lofty will satisfying regulatory and disclosure policy. The real story is the cost of paying their sweat shop workers more than a real living wage.. I know that is probably a bit harder in practice then theory.. "Designed by Apple in California, Manufactured in China"

LINK TO FILING search "margins"

Remember AAPL is 20% of the NDX 100 so watch the QLD.. Interesting enough that they Q's were up today

Visa Authorizes 1Bil Share Repurchase (V)

Upon release of their numbers today Visa (NYSE: V) announced a 1 billion dollar share repurchase authorization which will take place through September 2011. The company also saw quarter 4 payments volume growth up 14% over last year.

Visa also gave investors another reason to stick around increasing their quarterly dividend 20% to 15c
payable on December 7 to holders of record on November 19th.

Visa shares closed down today 11 cents to settle at 79.92. Currently trading down after hours.... I guess the interest monies has to go somewhere ..... 

Dollar Hollar! Dollar Continues Higher PT 2. (UUP)

DXY intra day 1 min

The US dollar index front month contract is surging this afternoon up nearly .75% or up 56c to 78.45. The level to watch for a breach to the upside is 78.50 in the dollar index futures which drives the DXY. This lwas the level where the dollar caught resistance earlier this month. As i am typing this 78.50 was breached with 78.51 being tested twice.

The UUP which retail traders tend to follow traded up to 22.70 which was short term resistance as the S&Ps were making fresh session lows of

Mr. TopStep Charts 10/27 “Welcome T+3 with VIX +20% in 3 days!” (Top Step))

Via @EUBIQUITOUS

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Monsanto Shares Spike On Takeover Speculation (MON)

Shares of Agriculture stock Monsanto (NYSE: MON) are spiking this morning on renewed takeover speculation. Shares spiked nearly 1.5 points sending the stock up- nearly half a percent from negative territory.

Monsanto (NYSE: MON) has been subject to takeover speculation for sometime, though nothing has materialized. Potash (NYSE: POT) Monsanto's competitor has been in a takeover battle with BHP for a month or so.

Options traders focused on the Monsanto November 65 calls where over 9,900 calls trades vs. open interest of 7,200 contracts. Traders are betting Monsanto shares are at or over 65 by November expiration.

Late Night S&P500 Futures Update (DXY)

There were less trading opportunities today compared to yesterday though if you were patient you were rewarded via a few strange short squeeze, cough rimm. Though the real story once again has been the dollar this week, she seems to still be driving the train. The dollar index DXz0 contract saw a rise of nearly .8%, which is currently up .3% after hours. The futures are pulling in from their after market Globex highs of 1186.25 as the last gasps of air were absorbed.

The 1183 level was breached with much ease as a descending triangle continued the trend down to 1177.75. The intra day low of the ES_F is 1174 which was achieved right off the open today. The reaction

Investor Paul Tudor Jones On Unemployment

Legendary investor Paul Tudor Jones thinks the revaluation of China's renminbi would do more for the US economy than QEII. The Chinese Yuan revaluation could possible create 3 million jobs given a 30% rise against the dollar.

Jones believes this approach is a much more organic way to stimulating the US economy by bringing unemployment down over 1.4% by 2014. Tudor appears to be in the camp which thinks indirect manipulation of the dollar via the printing of money is not the best way to go about our recovery.

Bloomberg goes onto write:

"Officials from the Group of 20 nations put off to a leaders’ meeting next month whether to further pressure China to allow faster gains in its currency. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has risen 13 percent since the start of September on speculation the Fed will pump more cash into the economy to spur the recovery, a strategy known as quantitative easing.

German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle has said more quantitative easing by the Fed is an indirect manipulation of the dollar’s exchange rate and the “wrong way” to stimulate growth."

Mr. Jones manages a 14Bil$ hedge-fund firm Tudor Investment Corp.

Stormy Tuesday in Chicago but Market Trend Still in Tact (Top Step)

Via Mr. Top Step.com

Brian staying dry metaphorically

TIVO Calls Active (TIVO)

Shares of TIVO (NASDAQ: TIVO) are continuing their march higher this morning up nearly 2.5%, breaching the 11 level with ease it has been fighting with earlier in the session Monday. Options traders focused on the 12 calls yesterday, today they are focusing on the 13 calls.

The 13 call strike saw nearly 1,500 contracts trade vs. OI of 1,100. Traders are betting on TIVO moving higher than 13 come third Friday in November.

Yesterday i did a post on scenario recognition in TIVO.. check it out.. Also check out stockMONSTER.. Great room for idea sharing..

Dollar Continues Higher (UUP)

The US dollar is showing its power this morning keeping the bulls at bay once again as the index is up nearly .7% today. The carry trade appears to be wiggling a bit as spot gold and other metals are showing signs of profit taking. Given the current 1200 level on the near horizon in the S&Ps traders are more than likely taking profits off the table head of the election and ahead of possible 1200 volatility. "you cannot go broke taking profits"

The UUP  (NYSE: UUP) is up .65% today to 22.51, Optionwhipser recommended buying the 23 calls up to 50c yesterday on the possibility of further dollar strength heading into the week. Those calls are now trading up about 11 cents to .63c. Not bad for 22% in less than 24 hours.

(NYSE: UUP)
Day's Range: 22.46 - 22.52
52wk Range: 22.02 - 25.84

Late Night S&P500 Futures Update (SPX)

UPDATED DXY CHART BELOW

Fairly quiet overnight session so far, not much in the name of currency games or ES ramping... 1181 appears to be the support tonight, with a clean downtrend being tested and retested from 1193 down to 1181.. Currently the descending triangle you see above failed to the upside, though this has happened 2 other times during this downtrend the past 24 yours.

The dollar is still the boss as the carry trade is wiggling a bit, perhaps this wiggling of the trade means we are in store for some volatility. 1186 on the upside is a level to watch for resistance, watch the 77 level in the DXY and 77.20 in the dollar futures DXZ0.

Gold will be moving around as well tomorrow with the dollar shuffling, i think when multiple asset classes are

Profiting From Scenario Recognition In TIVO (TIVO)

TIVO 1 min 2 day

Scenario recognition can provide greater confidence within a trade, thus increasing your profits. So easy to say right? it is just as easy to implement in practice. The chart pattern highlighted above is very bullish not for just TIVO but for any stock trading up to highs in the AM session. I picked TIVO's chart because scenario recognition does benefit your individual stock behavior library because when chatter hits in the AM this stock usually trades in a similar fashion if the buyer is real. 

Today the buyer was real off the rumor of take over chatter, TIVO put in highs of 10.98 before testing 10.75 support. That is the signal to buy, if you bought you would have grabbed 25c very quickly. I usually sell the if we break previous highs after the initial push looking for a re entry point a bit higher than previous support,

Mr. Top Step "S&P500 1200" (Top Step)

Via Mr. Top Step.com

Attn: Bernanke The Bubble Boy! Dollar Index Breaking Over 77.20 (DXY)

DXZ0 contract USD

UPDATE:
Dollar continues higher pushing the 77.35 level in the front month contract. ES_F breached the 1185 level trading 1182.75 on considerable volume.. Watch for a breach of 77.35 to bring fresh buying into the dollar and selling into GOLD and equities. 77.14 is the dollar level to watch in the DXY.. The update to the above DX chart is below..

The US dollar is the catalyst behind todays moves, as she is in an ascending triangle with a breakout above 77.20 in the DXZO contract signaling a possibly intra day reversal in the dollar following Friday's flash crash volatility. As for the S&Ps they stalled out above the 1192 level with continued selling in the front month spot GOLD contract down to the 1135 level. The market feels a bit different today as the morning really was

A Bill Gross Quote For You To Enjoy (PIMCO)

The quote is from a biography following a article written by The Globe Mail on PIMCO's Bill Gross titled "The obsessive life of bond guru Bill Gross". On getting out of the crisis

"Ultimately the question becomes how many checks do you have to write, and how many checks can you write. A lot of people say you can’t solve a debt crisis with more debt. You have a big contingent there. Then you have the other contingent… that would say as long as the dollar is the reserve currency, and as long as the Fed can write checks, then we can do anything we want to do. These are the balls that you juggle."

And we are juggling...

DXY breaking down through 77.20 pulling S&Ps up AH (SPX)

No need to worry your not missing anything in the after hours futures market tonight, just the standard 8-10 PM ramp session courtesy of foreign currency manipulation and dollar printing. 1185 is the level tonight where the SPOOZ has been rather attracted to, keep this number in mind as we are up against it as the dollar is breaking down through 77.20 in the DXY. Remember the DXY flash crash Friday? Where their smoke their is fire? 1180.50 is the level to watch on the downside tonight,  this was a level of hesitation during the final 15

FLASH CRASH via US Dollar Index.. The Next Chernobyl? (DXY)

As ZeroHedge so timely pointed out while most of us were out doing other things Friday afternoon after the market closed, the DXY, (ie DXZ0) contract completely fell out of bed. Last week we had  an after hours flash crash in the SPY, and as early as Wednesday of this week we had Ambac Financial ABK fall out of bed nearly 91 cents taking the stock to .08c before recovering. The common theme with these crashes is the market comes back within these products and they were all after hours a few minutes post regular session. What happens when something like the SPY or DXY flash crash happens during the first few minutes of trading or at lunch when no one is at their machines? Answer: All hell would break loose. Algorithms designed to protect and hedge massive portfolio's of derivatives will jump into action running their armageddon program.

You think these armageddon programs do not exist? They do. A human cannot lay off billions of dollars of risk in seconds, only dumb machines programed to do what they are told, they do not think. Thus when a flash crash occurs these programs do not know if it is a mistake and the trades will ge cancelled, they will

The Digital Versatile Disc is Dead - RIP DVD (NFLX)

My Saturday ramble... Streaming content is simply catching fire, everyone i know streams movies through Xbox, PS3 or via other devices. The days of NFLX packets strewn about your mail room are soon to be over, i bet you could even swoop them up and no one would ever question their whereabouts. Can't you get DVD players for free now days or for 10 dollars in the check out line at the grocery store?

Companies like AMZN who already have economies of scale in their favor can really place their flag in the digital content delivery space, unlike NFLX they already have the massive infrastructure in place to accommodate the massive bandwidth and server needs to facilitate the delivery.

I know I sound like a NFLX knocker, though i am more of a knocker on the USPS and the massive cost of postage associated with doing business via the mail which NFLX has to bare. Bring on the blue ray and digital content delivery...

AIG Raises Nearly 18 Billion in Hong Kong IPO (AIG)

I guess if the country your based out of hates you and are in debt to the tune of billions upon billions of dollars you go overseas and IPO a wing of your shady business. AIG has done just this, with a record IPO selling a 58% stake equaling 7.03 billion shares to investors in an effort to raise money to pay back the bailout.

(Bloomberg writes)“AIA’s anticipated market capitalization may earn it a spot within regional and global indexes. Speculation about this is said to be driving interest in the AIA IPO,” said Charles Stucke, a senior managing director of Guggenheim Partners LLC. “Most investors we cover who

Mid Day S&P500 Futures Update "Is the paint dry yet" (SPY)

Today has been about as eventful as lawnmower grand Prix at the Illinois State Fair.. Even with today being a POMO day the futures have been locked in a 5 handle range for the past well, all day. 1180 on the upside has held firm and 1176 on the downside has been where the bulls line resides. I expect nothing more from this market on an October Friday with the sun out here in Chi city. Perhaps we will get some action the last 30 minutes of the day, Happy ending?? I doubt this because all the weekly options are keeping this market fairly

Mr. Top Step "Thin Is In" (Top Step)

via Mr. Top Step.com

I Am Saying This Once, NFLX Is The Next Crox (NFLX)

9/29/2011 chart

original chart from 10/22/2010

ZeroHedge's post on NFLX's outage paints a very interesting picture for the wall street darling. Not gonna lie i did play the upside in NFLX post earnings, though this was based on the bullshit this market creates not fundamentals.

You gotta take this market down to you terminal and trade, fuck the opinions. And yes iv been known to have a bearish opinion, some people think it gets in the way of my writing but i really do not care, this blog is my personal opinion. My opinion can be different from a day trade, day trading is numbers not opinions.

I am a trader, i trade it up. THOUGH stocks such as NFLX which have so much riding on their asses are

houses of cards which a mouse fart could send the entire house crashing to earth quicker than a lead nugget in a pool filled with soap bubbles. The cost of NFLX content is massive, their server cost coupled with cost of postage cuts into their value.. what is it book value? 3 bucks? 2 bucks? 75 cents?  who the hell knows... what i do know is 100 shares moves this thing 50 cents, and for some damn reason NFLX trades lockstep with the S&P's hmmm...

Remember what happened with CROX? Share holders got wind CROX was blowing smoke about inventory builds, this sent the stock crashing like a indy car into turn 1. Very similar share structure to NFLX, very thin with heavy options interest and has all the media and coverage it can take.. If it is to good to be true maybe it is not true? Read the reports i link to above, draw your own conclusions. I am buying December 80 puts, bidding for a penny. Good luck.

Todays Mr Topstep "George Cavaligos on failed auction" (Top Step)

Via Mr. Top Step.com 

Mid Day S&P500 Futures Update (FAZ)

ES_F 1 min October 21

Bulls appeared to win this morning, though the bears roared above the 1185 level.. Thin chowder above the 1185s.. Come on guys, why the hell we up two days almost 10 handles without anything changing but a few tech titans reporting? NFLX is not the entire market neither is AMZN or EBAY. The 1178's appear to be a sticky level with 1176 being the low on the day. The sell off from 1182 down to 1176 was on fairly high volume, before the bottom was caught and we melted up 3 handles on butterfly wings. Anyway iv have been hearing highs have been put in for the day, time will be the only way to tell.

There are buyers still in this market looking to buy all the dips, you can see this by the violent reactions to the

Ambac After Hours Flash Crash? (ABK)

Bad print? or what.. not really sure... looks like this is going to be your Daily flash crash alert candidate.... Looks like quite .a drop from .98 all the way down to 08 cents..ON volume of about 16000 shares.... almost 90% loser isn't a bad trade LOL.....

Mid Day S&P500 Futures Update (FAS)

What do you know yesterday has been erased? ON what new catalyst? Nothing has changed, besides the dollar has a bit of weakness. Bank of America has had a hell of a range today, with heavy heavy selling this am taking her down nearly 5% all the way up to -.75%. Despite being major index component and one of the largest banks in the world being liquidated all was well on the index fronts because they were getting gunned with all the ammo the magic hand of god has in its magazine keeping BAC's impact minimal on price.

We opened on the 1164 level, which was purchased up to 1171 even. After a test of 1165 the spooz did not

Bank of America Sprayed With Napalm (BAC)

SO sorry for all the suckers who thought she was clean as a whistle. Good work Lewis! Here is the Stifel Report on their downgrade of BAC this morning.

End Of Day S&P Futures Update (SPX)

Today was an interesting day to say the least, there were many opportunities to trade multiple assets across many different time frames. 1172 this morning was resistance, with 1165 being support on the open....We saw gold fall off the 1370 level via profit taking on strength of the dollar via profit taking in the Euro(mouth full). This dynamic put pressure on equities which have seen their first major down day in almost 7 weeks.

One can argue today was profit taking within the equities space, i disagree. Equities were strong despite my obvious bear bias, why? because the tech sector aka NQ_F was pulled down by major component AAPL

King Dollar & Tech Test Bulls Patience (UUP)

"Don't bet on the dollar's demise". Today the carry trade got a bit squirmy as you can see, a few players took a bit of profits on their dollar shorts off the heels of tepid tech earnings and the currency convergence trade. Apple's gross margins declined, stock off 5% or so, IBM down 4% both pulling on the Q's. Ill admit iv been very bearish this whole rise the last two months, though the thing with bears is we are always ready to pounce. There is a big misconception that bears are always short... we are not. I am a trader, i buy to sell and sell to buy. It is suicide to continually short a upward trending market no matter how irrational it seems. Bears tend to be a bit more in-tune with the market than bulls per my experience... What is not suicide is reading the tape and waiting for the perfect opportunity within the tape to take some dollars out of a market on the short side. Today was the ticket many patient bears had been waiting for.

The trading within the NQ_F (NASDAQ futures) prior to Apple's Q3 earnings release foreshadowed

Mr. TopStep Charts 10/19 “Its All About Expectations” (DXY)

Via @Eubiquitous and Mr Top Step

SPY FLASH CRASHED.. "WHOOPS!" (SPY)

Here we are again, "the daily flash crash", this time the most heavily traded and supposedly most liquid security in the world shit its pants 9.55% after hours moving from 118.50ish to 106.46 in just about 15 seconds. Nearly 7 million shares changed hands in that period of time. To me it looks like a cash/futures arbitraging algo jumped the gun pre Apple earnings causing every other algo monitoring the market to think the entire fucking world was ending. DONT WORRY EVERYONE THEY ARE CANCELLING 500 MILLION in trades... what a pile a piss.

 The markets should not be acting like this, there needs to be something done. If this would have happened during regular hours all hell would have broken loose, this is the saving grace. Think about it, we have the LQD crash, AAPL 11 point crash these are highly liquid and correlated names, when the house of cards starts to tip the whole house will crash so fast we might not have a chance to hit the sell button. I know i will because i got the Armageddon hot key programmed.

Apple For Sale On Aisle 318 (AAPL)

Now that the excitement of watching apple fall 22 points in seconds has subsided it is now time to talk about the reasons behind the price action.  It seems a lot of home gamers on and professional traders a like were caught off guard by Apple's sharp down move after they reported Q3 earnings. My first word of advice is, when a trade seems to easy, it probably is. The trade from 300 up to 318 was almost fee money to some, though to others it was rough as they were short the 300 level.

Apple reports Q4 EPS $4.64 vs. consensus $4.06
Reports Q4 revenue $20.34B vs. consensus $18.86B.  Apple reports Q4 gross margin 36.9% vs. 41.8% prior : *ouch, cost of producing their products is going up because of Chinese wage increases.

Mutual Fund Monday up 11 of 12 (Top Step)

Via @MrTopStep.com

The Week Ahead.. Jobs & Housing (SPX)

The start to the coming week will be fairly quiet on the economic calendar front, though the later part of the week things will heat up. Tuesday we have September housing starts (consensus 575k prior 598k), these numbers should carry a bit more volatility potential with the current robo signing scandal picking up steam. Wednesday we have the Fed's Beige book, mainly fluff, the real meat and potatoes comes Thursday the 21st as we have initial jobless claims(consensus 550k), continuing claims(consensus 4400k) both @ 8:30 est. Philadelphia Fed releases their data on September manufacturing activity @ 10am est on the 21st as well.

The jobs data will be the last major release before November elections, keep this in mind if you are planning on spread trading the new OPEX cycle, which this past Friday ended the October cycle. I expect a few surprises though it seems the market still has its perma bid which is not going to go away anytime soon with

Bobby "Flay" Market (Top Step)

Via Mr. Top Step.com




Check out stockMONSTER for great trade ideas.

Mid Day OPEX E-mini Update (SPX)

Happy OPEX ladies, fairly quiet on the home front.. GOOG OTM calls really shot to the moon today after its parabolic AH move following its earnings release. GOOG currently up 59 points. AMZN 52 highs, AAPL over 300, who the hell is buying this junk? Oh well. The Q's are the only index keeping this ship above the water line. The futures today are fairly quiet 1180 on the upside is resistance, yesterday's low was 1162.50 todays low was 1163.

Off the open we got the classic shoot to the moon from 1174 to 1179.50, which failed with in classic OPEX FU fashion down to 1164. Right now the ES_F is in a consolidation pattern, which i feel will break down to the 1164 level if 1170 fails. below 1163.75 if we get there momo selling should come in.

remember buy them to sell them, sell them to buy them... and Careful with the cheapo options today, lots of pinning im guessing.... low volume = easier to pin.

Up Up & Away Said The Bubble Boy - S&P500 Futures Update (FAS)

Blah blah blah. Blah blah blah. You know what i really do not even have anything negative to say today because all my readers know what i would say so just fill in the holes. I am going to talk about levels which seem to be the only thing that makes any sense in this god forsaken market which is filled with our tax payer money. Up up and away said the bubble boy. We opened today at 1172.25 traded down to 1169.50 before the falling knife was caught. 1178 was mid morning resistance, 1181 is the afternoon session high. As i type this we are resting on the 1176.75 support. 1178 proved to be a sticky number this afternoon.

I tweeted yesterday stating value investors are in no way buying up this market, almost a trillion dollars has

Mid Day S&P500 Futures Update (SPX)

 The future held their red tent over night, though once again the mystery buyer stepped back into the ring 1151.75, 1.75 points above the 1150 support which has been in tact for a week or so. 1155 was breached, though only briefly, looks like all the retards are buying this "quantitative easing # 2" or QEII. You know what i am fairly convinced the bullshit printing of money will find its way back into the market, though the party can only go on for so long. Equities go up our dollar goes down, food prices go up, oil prices go up all synthetic taxes on American wages, which are shrinking and jobs are few and far between.

Today's upper resistance is 1162 with the lower still being 1150, based on the violence of the uptrend off 1151.75 today im sure we have a bit of funny money in the market so watch for spikey unpredictable upward biased trading.
FED MINUTES TODAY 16:00 

Late Night S&P Futures Update (SPX)

ES 1 min overnight

Well well well what do we have here, actual selling in the over night futures session? You don't say, you got to be joking right? i mean this is just wild i know.. Well it is real folks we are down half a percent resting on 1155 support. NYC regular session closed up around 1163, after  MASSIVE stick save after a sharp sell off in the last minutes of trading. The stick save was off the 1157.75 level, which saw a bounce of 5.25 handles in about 15 minutes.

Looks like the selling pressure is back on, as you can see from the chart above the intra day channel of 1165

Avon Products Surging After Hours On Takeover Rumors? (AVP)

UPDATE: LONDON DAILY MAIL REPORTING

Avon Products Inc's shares have been in strong demand in New York of late and improved a further 1.2 per cent to $33.33 early yesterday amid hot gossip that it is attracting the attention of several big industry players.

Not much news out on this but it looks like they are in talks to be acquired by L'Oreal.. NOTHING is confirmed thought he company has been in talks M&A talks... only news story i see is this... ... Stock is surging up nearly 4 bucks after hours.

Peter Diamond, Bernanke's "Mentor" One of 2010's Nobel Winners

Isn't this great, the man who has deluded the entire United States population into believing all is well on the home front, mentor has won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize in Economic Sciences. He and two others, Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides won for their work on the "Efficiency of recruitment and wage formation as well as labor-market regulation." Bloomberg reports. Nothing like learning from the best Eh?

Lets focus on what Diamond has researched while at MIT...

"Diamond, 70 -- an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- has researched a wide range of subjects. His earliest work, published in the 1960s, focused on the long-term impact of the growing national debt on the economy."

Well all be fucking damned.  Bernanke sure knows a few things about national debt creation.

(Bloomberg writes) In a paper written in 2005 with Peter Orszag, who stepped down as President

French Telecom Company Leaks Palm Pre 2 Specifications (HPQ)

Whoops... Somone is gonna get fired... Apparently a French carrier SFR posted the specifications of Palm and HPQ's still under wraps smart phone the Pre 2, possibly to be named "roadrunner" ..sounds pretty boring if you ask me. The first phone was terrible, im sure the second will be just as "cheap" and "playschooly" feeling. Man i remember the days of the Palm Pilot, everyone wanted one of those. Hell i even remember when the company Handspring was creating clones of the devices, the ultimate in flattery in the technology business. 
Specifications:

1165 FUT KEY to FLASH CRASH & GOLD & SILVER (Top Step)

Via Mr. Top Step.com
Check out stockMONSTER for all your day trading ideas.

Is Market Open? Mid Day Futures Update (SPX)

Wow what a snoozer this Columbus day is... Banking holiday but the sorry saps like myself have to sit around and star at the computer screen watching my monitor pix-elate. The high today is 1165 even ... LO is 1160.25... Pretty meager 5.25 handle range.. Funny thing is the only stocks moving are the large ETF components such as BIDU, GOOG and NFLX. BS... they really know how to make a market look like it is not dead when it is on life support.....Some of you might not believe this but technology stocks are not the only components of this bullshit market...

If we can break above 1165 or below 1160.25 some volume should pick up, though this range is pretty solid as you can see from the chart above...